In recent years, thinner and more functional electronic devices such as mobile phones have been sought. This has lead to innovations being made, even with regard to holding bases for holding mobile phones, to enable the functions of mobile phones to be utilized or extended. Such holding bases are also referred to as tabletop holders or cradles.
Heretofore, it has been possible to charge the battery of a mobile phone held in a holding base by providing the holding base with a charging connector, and connecting a connecter from a charging power unit to this connector.
Also, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-303859 discloses a holding base provided with a communication USB terminal for connecting an external peripheral device, a power supply terminal for supplying power from an external source, a charging controller that charges a mobile phone using supplied power, and a USB controller having a host function. As a result of this conventional holding base, an external peripheral device and a mobile phone can be USB connected without using a PC, and data communication is possible between the external peripheral device and the mobile phone.
Also, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) has had a standard called USB-OTG (On-The-Go) for connecting peripheral devices, and there are also mobile phones that incorporate a chip having a USB-OTG function.
However, conventionally, with a holding base provided with a charging terminal and a communication terminal, both the charging terminal and the communication terminal are connected to the mobile phone when the mobile phone is being held.
Thus, in the case where, for example, a USB connection with a personal computer is established, every time the mobile phone is held in the holding base, a message indicating that fact is displayed on a display screen of the personal computer, forcing the user to respond. This is troublesome for the user who merely put the mobile phone in the holding base for charging, and having to perform unnecessary operation of the personal computer is annoying.
Also, because the connection with the communication terminal is constantly established, even in the case of only charging, wear on the communication terminal is hastened, and the life of the communication terminal is shortened.
Further, with such a conventional holding base, in order to hold a mobile phone, it is not enough to merely place the mobile phone on the holding base. Some sort of locking operation is needed, such as placing and then pushing the mobile phone down, or sliding the mobile phone. Even this locking operation is greatly troublesome for the user who only wants to charge his or her mobile phone.